I buy my polycarbonate as scrap (offcuts) from Piedmont Plastics in Maryland (they have 2 locations in Georgia). Most plastics shops sell offcuts of whatever plastics they work with. I can get 2'x4' sheets of 3/16" polycarbonate for around $7, as opposed to paying $49.I just take a trip to the shop once every 6 months to replenish my stockpile.

So in all honesty the material cost for each kit is close to $3. It only took me 2 afternoons to make 15 identical units using the CAD templates and my wide assortment of tools.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 10 September 2006 - 07:18 PM.

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The little critters of nature, they don't know that they're ugly. That's very funny, a fly marrying a bumble bee. I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me. Why didn't you believe me?

I buy my polycarbonate as scrap (offcuts) from a company in Maryland called Piedmont Plastics. Most plastics shops sell offcuts of whatever plastics they work with. I can get 2'x4' sheets of 3/16" polycarbonate for around $7, as opposed to paying $49.I just take a trip to the shop once every 6 months to replenish my stockpile.

So in all honesty the material cost for each kit is close to $3.

You get your stuff in MD? may i ask where this shop is? i may live near it. and if so, it may save on shipping costs for my kit.

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"I Am Become Death. Destroyer of Worlds"- J. Robert Oppenheimer (Upon the first successfull detonation of an atomic bomb)

Very, very nice work Captain. Not only is it a practical mod, you made it look professional and clean. Heck, it improved the overall look of the LS. I may have to try this myself... Thank you too for the writeup, plans, etc. This is easily the best thread I've read in months.

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On the web, your language skills are your appearance and odor. Don't be a smelly elephant man.

Yes, I know, having actually bothered to read the entire thread. ;K) I'm more of a do-it-yourself guy, to a point. With the nice resources Captain's made available, it should be a cinch. Just have to be careful when cutting the Lexan, that's all. Last time I worked with the stuff, I learned that high-speed saw blades melt the Lexan behind it, 'magically' sealing your cut. Blah!

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On the web, your language skills are your appearance and odor. Don't be a smelly elephant man.

Last time I worked with the stuff, I learned that high-speed saw blades melt the Lexan behind it, 'magically' sealing your cut. Blah!

Yeah. Plastics are not cooperative with rotary cutting tools unless you buy very specific blades. Tablesaws in particular will melt sheets or throw shrapnel around if you don't use a plywood/OBS blade.The best tools you cen get for cutting plastics are scrollsaw or jigsaws, and both are what I recommend for this project. Scrollsaws are more versatile and easier to control, but they do cost a bit more than your average jigsaw.Provided you use the right tools, blades, and cutting speeds, polycarbonate is an extremely pleasant and forgiving material to machine. It has the rigidity and durability of aluminum while being even easier to cut and thread.

If any of you need to find sources for plastics the best place to look is your local phonebook. Look for sign making shops or plastics shops. Plastics shops will carry a much wider variety of plastics because they tend to mostly cater to display case fabrication for retail stores. Simply call around until you can find a few that work with polycarbonate AND sell their offcuts. Buying offcuts will allow you to buy whatever you need for 60%-80% off of the total price. There are no other plastics that I would recommend for custom applications because anything other than polycarbonate will be even pickier about how you cut it.If you have no local resources http://www.mcmaster.com is an indispensible source for nearly everything.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 15 September 2006 - 05:27 PM.

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The little critters of nature, they don't know that they're ugly. That's very funny, a fly marrying a bumble bee. I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me. Why didn't you believe me?

I just remembered to ask you! I thought of this when I first read your topic, but I wasn't able to post it then, so I'll ask now:

Are those two screws acting as hardpoints well enough? That is to say, are they holding up well? I'd tend to think that they wouldn't be a very secure way to guide the slide. Have they been coming loose at all? I'd tend to think that just screwing them in wouldn't be that secure if you really cocked the slide hard, over and over.

I would've done the same thing you did to the bolt sled for the foregrip part: put a rod through the holes drilled in the body, and secure it with some washers and some hex nuts. I think that'd hold better, but maybe that'd either have too much friction, or be too loose, depending on how tight you screwed it in.

Overall, I love the mod. Great use of polycarbonate. We never see enough of it used around here. It's a great material to work with. My only qualms are that I have to go out of my way to get it at a reasonable price. I'm sure that you get even better deals, though.

Its a really great idea, executed very, very well. When that Longshot+Secondary gun integration was posted, everyone said that in a few years, that would be remembered as 'The LongShot mod'. I think that this is the one that everyone will remember; Captain Slug's Longshot Foregrip. I might have to do this to our Longshot soon. But I'll use the template you made, instead of making you machine a-million-and-one of these things.

1. Are those two screws acting as hardpoints well enough? That is to say, are they holding up well? I'd tend to think that they wouldn't be a very secure way to guide the slide. Have they been coming loose at all? I'd tend to think that just screwing them in wouldn't be that secure if you really cocked the slide hard, over and over.

2. I would've done the same thing you did to the bolt sled for the foregrip part: put a rod through the holes drilled in the body, and secure it with some washers and some hex nuts. I think that'd hold better, but maybe that'd either have too much friction, or be too loose, depending on how tight you screwed it in.

1. hence why securing the hex nut to those screws as tightly as you can get it is recommended. The longshot I modified to make the instructions has been this way for over a week (of shooting my coworkers) with no loosening. If anyone has an issue with it they could add a regular washer, a locking washer, or just use a plastic threaded nut or something similar.

2. That's the way it was initially but it was making disassembly of the gun needlessly tedious. You can do it yourself for the sake of durability. Doesn't affect the end product or usability in any way.

And I don't think I'll be the end-all-be-all in anything any time soon. Some people prefer the stock bolt handle. Why exactly I'm not sure.My foregrip is easy enough to redesign to allow for additional parts to still be mounted in the bipod area provided they're not very wide and I would be interested to see whatever modifications you guys can come up with for my hardware. Using my foregrip with the side arm integration would be quite a challenge dimensionally but isn't that impossible to accomplish.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 19 September 2006 - 03:25 AM.

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The little critters of nature, they don't know that they're ugly. That's very funny, a fly marrying a bumble bee. I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me. Why didn't you believe me?

I ..have a little suggestion for those who are too lazy to do this and want to increase the rate of fire:
Find a shoulder strap (from a guitar, or backpack even) and strap it on. The Longshot even comes with little strap holes built in! Now strap it to your shoulder, and you won't have to move the gun in order to cock it.

Ofcourse this mod is way cooler than getting a strap..but that gives the same RoF boosts with much less work.

What are you talking about? Adding a shoulder strap to the loops provided on the gun still requires you to prime the awkwardly placed bolt handle with your hand that's not on the trigger grip. That configuration is rather awkward and makes the gun less stable. A shoulder strap might make the gun a little bit more stable, but won't improve rate-of-fire.
The Foregrip mod improves your grip stability and prevents you from having to change your hand holds in order to cycle the action. It's not about rate of fire, but about basic ergonomics.
Yes you might get the same rate of fire by simply keeping a hand on the stock bolt handle, but it would get uncomfortable very quickly and wouldn't lend itself to stable aiming like a shotgun-style grip would.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 19 September 2006 - 11:52 AM.

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The little critters of nature, they don't know that they're ugly. That's very funny, a fly marrying a bumble bee. I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me. Why didn't you believe me?